CHEAT SHEET

MOUNTING

Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said on Sunday that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling includes a mounting case of obstruction of justice on the part of President Donald Trump. “The [Senate] Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well and it involves obstruction of justice and I think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice,” Feinstein said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director [James] Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to ‘lift the cloud’ of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice.” Feinstein’s comments come after former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and after Trump tweeted on Saturday that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI at the time of his firing. Such an admission could be used as evidence of obstruction of justice as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, who claims that Trump asked him to drop the agency’s inquiry into Flynn. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in June that his panel was not looking into obstruction of justice, adding that it was best left to the special counsel.